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The focus of the Clementi Review was on the governance and regulation of the BBC. However, from the
point of view of broadcasting in Wales, the recommendations that impact on accountability and representation (both in governance and on-screen) are
especially important.

The
Institute of Welsh Affairs is particularly pleased to see that this review has
not followed the line of a recent government proposal to have no representatives from
the nations on any new unitary BBC board - a proposal which flies in the face
of the realities of devolution as it is experienced in the nations. Clementi’s
stance is more likely to deliver a working relationship in the long-term.

For
Wales, the key Clementi recommendations are:

- that
the BBC be answerable to OFCOM

- that
a unitary board for the BBC should include representatives of the four devolved nations

- that
there should be national operating licences for each of the devolved nations

- that
the audience councils should be retained, but chaired by the welsh director on
the BBC board

- that
the BBC board should also consider whether to give the audience councils more
powers.

In the IWA’s Submission to Clementi Review we recommended an equivalent to
Clementi’s national operating licences, accompanied by a single funding
allocation to cover all services provided by that nation.

Our major concern is
Clementi’s recommendations about the future of the audience councils. Although
the review gives a useful and insightful critique of the councils, we are
concerned that its criticism of the current charter for being ‘highly
prescriptive’ and its call for ‘greater flexibility in the new charter’ in
relation to them, could lead to their being weakened at the BBC’s whim. For the nations, mechanisms of accountability are too important to be left without the
protection of prescriptive measures enshrined in the charter.

We would like to see councils in each nation which would:

- approve the allocation of resources
between the various services

- monitor and review annually the
delivery of the national service licence

- ascertain and monitor the state of
public opinion

- ascertain the needs and interests of
members of the public

- assist the board in each nation in
the formulation of objectives for that nationʼs services

- monitor that nationʼs contribution
to the BBCʼs network services as well as the coverage and portrayal of that
nation in those services

- advise the BBC centrally, as it sees
fit, on any matters relating to the output, management, governance or
reputation of the BBC.

In relation to Wales, the
Clementi Review must be considered in tandem with a crucial report, issued on 2nd March, by the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee of the
National Assembly for Wales. Its Inquiry into the BBC Charter Review report makes eleven recommendations, on
a much broader canvas than Clementi, but one which gives the clearest possible
message that politicians in Wales have taken on board the need to create a BBC
fit for Wales within tomorrow’s UK. In that future, Wales will expect to have an
adequate say in its media operations and a BBC that, both at local and network
level, represents Wales and is properly accountable.